Trump says U.S. is investigating China over virus

On Monday (April 27) U.S. President Donald Trump blamed China again for the spread of the coronavirus and said his administration will seek damages for the United States.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

"There are a lot of ways you can hold them accountable. We're doing very serious investigations, as you probably know, and we are not happy with China. We are not happy with that whole situation because we believe it could have been stopped at the source, it could have been stopped quickly and it wouldn't have spread all over the world. And we think that should have happened."

Trump has repeatedly targeted China's handling of the virus outbreak, which first appeared in the city of Wuhan late last year.

That includes at one time, floating the theory that the virus may have originated in a Wuhan lab.

China denied those accusations and the World Health Organization later rejected the theory.

And last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. quote "strongly believed" Beijing failed to report the outbreak in a timely manner.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE MIKE POMPEO, SAYING:

"Even after the CCP did notify the WHO of the coronavirus outbreak, China didn't share all of the information it had. Instead it covered up how dangerous the disease is. It didn't report sustained human to human transmission for a month until it was in every province inside of China."

On Monday Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying took aim at Pompeo tweeting that he should quote "stop playing the political game" and "save energy on saving lives."

Pompeo is not the only member of Trump's administration to criticize China in recent weeks.

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro - has accused China of quote "profiteering" from the pandemic.

Earlier on Monday he took to Fox News to accuse Beijing of sending quote "fake tests" for the coronavirus despite the United States being heavily reliant on China for basic equipment.